Forest Service change means no more ignoring small blazes

The U.S. Forest Service has changed its policy about small fires burning in wilderness areas. The agency has decided it's worth the expense and effort of snuffing out those fires to keep them from growing into blazes like the one that scorched much of the Boundary Waters last year. The new policy will keep firefighters busy for the next couple of months, responding to fires they would have let burn under the old system.

The U.S. Forest Service has changed its policy about small fires burning in wilderness areas. The agency has decided it's worth the expense and effort of snuffing out those fires to keep them from growing into blazes like the one that scorched much of the Boundary Waters last year. The new policy will keep firefighters busy for the next couple of months, responding to fires they would have let burn under the old system.

Federal officials are not second guessing the management of the forest fire that burned more than 140 square miles of Boundary Waters Canoe Area last year. In a series of reports the Forest Service says all regulations were followed. The agency says the fire behaved in ways that were unprecedented for the crews that were fighting it.

The wildfires that have been plaguing the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness area in northeastern Minnesota are contained, controlled or out, the U.S. Forest Service reported Saturday. However, with the forecast of dry weather in the next few days, campfire restrictions remain in the area and some lake and trail closures are still in effect.

A Tuesday night storm that passed through the Superior National Forest was a lose-lose for firefighters: it generated very little rain but plenty of lightning. A fire that's been burning since Sunday is a little bigger, but is now about 40 percent contained. Meanwhile, five smaller fires were started by lightning strikes.

The massive wildfire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness burned about 95,000 acres. Hundreds of firefighters from the Midwest and Rocky Mountains fought the blaze at a cost of more than $20 million. And now, with winter approaching, we're getting a look at the extent of the devastation the fire left behind.

A Tuesday night storm that passed through the Superior National Forest was a lose-lose for firefighters: it generated very little rain but plenty of lightning. A fire that's been burning since Sunday is a little bigger, but is now about 60 percent contained. Meanwhile, five smaller fires that were started by lightning strikes have forced the closure of a small part of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

Visitors to the popular tourist town of Ely will notice it does not look the same. Lush green forest was devastated in a blaze this week just south of the Boundary Waters gateway, and will take years to recover. The last mile of Highway 1 just south of town will lose much of the distinctive forest that has lined the road. The fire sparked Thursday was well under control late Friday.

A horse that broke free from its pasture in Forest Lake needed to be rescued Wednesday after it fell through a neighbor's swimming pool cover into about three feet of water. Firefighters used an aerial ladder truck to lift the horse to safety.